Our LevMixer™ system is a compact single-use mixing system. The heart of this system is a mixing biocontainer bag incorporating a bottom-mounted levitating impeller designed for powder-liquid and liquid-liquid mixing applications. The impeller is frictionless and generates no particles.
Powder-liquid mixing is a common requirement in biopharmaceutical processes such as buffer preparation. This study confirms scalability of our LevMixer system across the range from 50 to 1000 L.
View our LevMixer single-use mixer for shear-sensitive, scalable mixing with automation and data tracking.
Materials and methods
In this study, we used a LevMixer single-use mixing system to prepare various volumes of a typical buffer salt solution, and the mixing times were compared to demonstrate scalability.
LevMixer biocontainer bags of 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 L were filled to standard capacity with water, and the mixing speed was set to 180 rpm. We charged each biocontainer with sufficient sodium chloride powder to make an 8.8 g/L (150 mM) solution, and monitored the solution homogeneity via real-time conductivity readings.
Results
Figure 1 shows mixing time as a function of the biocontainer bag volume with mixing times ranging from 60 to 210 s, depending on volume. We see that the relationship between working volume and mixing time is linear, making for a predictable scalability model.
Fig 1. Mixing time as a function of the biocontainer volume.
Conclusion
Our LevMixer system is well suited for preparation of buffer salt solutions at scales ranging from 50 to 1000 L. The predictable relationship between volume and mixing time can simplify the scale-up process.